Dropped rifles ( in gun case )
:chop::chop::chop:With an oversea hunt to materialized, junior dropped both rifles ( in their separate case each) from the top of the check in baggage while negotiating a corner to get us checked in. No visible damage was noted but deep down, there was an Oh, Shit! from me. Anyway, a sight in was arranged and my first shot at 118 yards was not on an A4 paper! Moving to 25 yards, I was on the money. Back to 188 yards I was 2.5 inches high on the third shot and a fourth shot was dead level but 1 inch to the right. Will, I came away quite happy, thinking that after the bump, the rifle/scope just need a few hot to settle down and I put the last shot as my "pull" shot. My rifle is a Sako with Optik Rings. Junior brought along an R 93 which was broken down and he checked in the scope with mount separately. Anyway, after putting the rifle together, he only need one shot and he was on the money.
Hunting commence the next day and we use that as an look around day. Me and my mate decided not to take our rifles bu let one other guy and my son took theirs. Nothing was shot on that day but enough was seen that we all packed our rifle the next day. A deer was spied at over 300 yards and my mate A-Maxed it while my son ready himself should the shot flush out another one. Well, one showed itself at 360 Yards and junior "VLD" it. Two deers before 9:00am, good stuff!
Afternoon hunt got me a deer 450 yards away. It was bedding down, front on quartering. "VLD" it under the neck and out the other side of the shoulder. Next few days were spend getting the other hunting companion his deer. To cut a long story shot, he got his deer too. Anyway, when it was my turn to nail another one, an opportunity raised at 525 yards. With he scope dialed in and double checked, I proceed to follow through with the shot. The shot felt good but I did not hear any impact sound! Deer moved another 20 yards uphill and junior was calling my shot high. Moved elevation down and fired another shot. Again, shot felt good but still not connecting! This time, the deer decided to bugger off, not finding out if I will be third time lucky :). The ballistic program was scrutinized and there was no fault there. 1 test shot was allowed ( too many would frighten the deers) and I adjust my scope accordingly. It printed 1 inch high and half in to the right.
Another opportunity came up at 625 yards and same shit happen, it went high! Anyway, I came back with one animal each for me and junior. With such failure of my last 3 shots, I went testing last week. Five shots was done without tweaking the rifle and scope. Well, it did not hold zero. Allen key came out and guess what? I was able to further tighten the scope ring screws with little finger pressure! Tighten all screws as evenly as possible and 3 shots was fired, this time the group was good and further 3 shots by my mate proved similar.
Lesson learned :
The Optik Ring with its plastic sleeves sitting in the concaved ring must have moved when the rifle was dropped. Also, may be the plastic sleeves were compressed but the drop altered the compression. As we were told to bring only 20 rounds of ammo each and the fact that shooting there to re sight in my rifle would frighten the deers. Also, without my Allen key with me at the time, I could waste ammo by tweaking with the scope which the fault were the scope rings. For the record, I am not rubbishing the scop rings or any particular product. It is just one of those thing in life. Shit happen and at least I am dealing with it and learned my lesson. :thumbsup::(
Re: Dropped rifles ( in gun case )
10-20 in/lb is about right
To be honest, at the low end of the scale on a low end tq wrench (sorry) you prob wont even feel it click
Re: Dropped rifles ( in gun case )
Will work for cross bolts on ring ands action screws
On a T15.. not sure I'd go above 25in/lb without holding your tongue right, or it could be messy.
If the screws make a noise, they are WAAAAAAAAY too tight.... just like all mine are :D
Dropped rifles ( in gun case )
I use an inch pound torque wrench all the time. Scope bases are tightened to 25 inch pounds, scope ring clamp cross bolts 25 to 35 in/po, top ring clamp 15 in/po.
Hs precisionstocks front action screw 65 in/po, rear screw 45 in/po.
Too early in the day to remember any more rifle machine screw torque values !
Oh Tikka and ruger plastic stocks all action screws 40 inch pounds except ruger front trigger guard screw, which is medium loctited and two finger tight/ just up to snug, so it cant bend the action in towards the stock, which makes it shoot like a Ruger.......
Re: Dropped rifles ( in gun case )
If we know torque wrench is classified as weapon in the first place, we would have done it differently. Another lesson learned!
